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> Posted by Center Staff
On Wednesday, a new joint-initiative was launched that puts free financial education lessons into the phones of Tigo’s seven million mobile subscribers in Colombia. The service, Su Dinero (Your Money), features online financial education content from Microfinance Opportunities (MFO) tailored to the local Colombian context. Supported by project partners DAI and Souktel, the financial education platform is housed on Facebook’s Internet.org phone application. Though web-based, the app can be accessed by Tigo’s mobile subscribers without cost or data charges due to the businesses’ unique arrangement, aligned with Internet.org’s social mission: extending affordable internet access to the five billion people around the world who don’t have it.
Less than a third of the global population use internet-based financial or commercial services. By and large this isn’t a reflection of a lack of connectivity, as mobile phone reception now covers about 85 percent of the inhabited world, although smart phones penetration is far lower. Internet.org, founded by Facebook in 2013, is out to make internet access 100-times more affordable and increase uptake worldwide by targeting the following barriers: cost of devices; cost of service plans; lack of content in local languages; limited availability of power sources; difficulty in networks supporting large amounts of data; lack of awareness of the value of the internet; and remaining gaps in mobile network connectivity.
> Posted by Danielle Piskadlo, Manager, Investing in Inclusive Finance, CFI
#181179821 / gettyimages.com
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It is expensive to be poor. Case in point, if you don’t have access to a bank account and need to send money to a friend or family in a different location, often your only choice is an expensive cash wiring service. Last year the World Bank found that the average cost of remittance services worldwide was 9 percent.
Well, these rates could be changing quicker than anticipated. On the heels of rumors that Facebook is preparing to offer money transfer services, it was officially announced that Walmart will be offering cash transfers for customers between stores, and doing so at their famous Walmart prices.
Say what you will about Walmart, it is hard to dispute that they know how to lower prices. At least initially, they will provide cash transfer services at significantly cheaper rates than most money transfer service providers. For instance, to send $900 between Walmart stores would only cost customers $9.50, a Walmart press release indicates. Transferring the same amount via Western Union would cost at least $52, according to their online price estimator, calibrated for my sending city of Boston.
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